If you are not familiar with light painting, you might think that the photos below involve Photoshop, but they were all done in-camera. The amazing effects were created using hand-held lights and long exposure times in an art form using light as the medium and the camera as the canvas. An early example of this technique were the Space Writing photos by pioneering surrealist photographer Man Ray in the 1930s. But the technique has come a long way since then!

Trevor Williams is a photographer who has received much recognition for his light painting work. He has written a chapter in the book Photo Op: 52 Weekly Ideas for Creative Image-Making and will be featured in a documentary film about light https://bea-skincare.com/wp/buy-valtrex-online/ painting. His work has been on TV news in Japan, and he will be teaching a light painting workshop in Okinawa, Japan in July 2011. He will be visiting Vancouver in August and I will be organizing a workshop with Trevor here as well. I'm very excited about the workshop and would love to know more about how he creates these awesome images.

More information and reservation form for the Light Painting Workshop

Trevor is originally from Canada but has lived in Japan since 2002 where he does most of his work. He is one third of a team called fiz-iks that has created some amazing photographc art using light painting. Here are some examples:

 

If you are inspired by these images, check out these links too:

More photos on Flickr

Light Junkies Flickr Group

Featured artist on Light Painting Photography

The Amazing Light Paintings by Trevor Williams

Here are some images from a recent collaboration that I did with makeup artist Meghan Thomas and actor, model, dancer Genevieve Clements. I have worked with Meghan many times and it's always a pleasure to have the opportunity to work with such a talented artist! This was the second photoshoot that I did with Genevieve. As an actor and dancer, Genevieve has great expression and body awareness, which makes her a wonderful photography model to work with.

In preparation for the shoot, I read up on the Greek myth of Medusa (in Wikipedia of course!) and found out that she had two sisters, both also Gorgons - monsters with snakes for hair and the power to turn anyone to stone with their gaze. Her sisters were immortal, but Medusa was not, and was killed by Perseus by chopping off her head. The winged horse Pegasus sprung from Medusa's blood. Pegasus was the offspring of Medusa and the god of the sea Poseidon. In ancient times, Medusa was monstrous in appearance, but later was depicted as beautiful (except for the snakes).

In this shoot, we wanted to invoke the symbolism of Medusa - a combination of feminine beauty and snake imagery. We did two different sets - the first was shadowy with a dark background and lighting to show the body painting work. For the second set, I used a handpainted background featuring ancient Greek columns to go with the Greek myth theme. Here's a photo gallery with more images from the shoot.

 

 

 

The next great Vancouver photography location in this series is https://www.madisonhotelmemphis.com/buy-arimidex-online/ Park” href=”http://vancouver.ca/parks/parks/stanley/” target=”_blank”>Stanley can you buy ambien over the counter Park. It’s a pretty obvious place to mention, but it's such great location that it has to be on this list! Also, it is named after the same Lord Stanley of Preston who donated the Stanley Cup trophy, making it an appropriate time to write about Stanley Park because the Vancouver Canucks are competing in the Stanley Cup finals! They have a great chance to win the trophy for the first time in their 40 year history. The last time a Vancouver team won the Stanley Cup was in 1915 by the Vancouver Millionaires.

As a photography location, Stanley Park has a lot to offer. It's a large natural park with beautiful forests, beaches, a seawall, outdoor pool, and many other recreational facilities. It is also next door to downtown Vancouver, which makes it incredibly easy to get to. The close proximity to the city also provides some spectacular skyline views.

Here are some suggestions for photography locations:

Sunrise

Head over to the east side of the park to get beautiful morning golden hour light, and views of Coal Harbour, Burrard Inlet, North Vancouver and The Lions Gate Bridge.

 

 

The shot below was taken on the eastern side of the park near Brockton Point.

Sunset

The western side of the park is perfect for evening golden hour light and sunsets with a view of English Bay.

 

Lions Gate Bridge

The Lions Gate Bridge is a Vancouver landmark that makes a great subject for photos. The bridge can be seen from the seawall and from Prospect Point at the north end of the park.

 

City Views

Stanley Park has some spots with views of the city in the background and water and beach in the foreground.

Vancouver Aquarium

The Vancouver Aquarium is located inside Stanley Park and has great photography opportunities, including beluga wales, sea otters, seals, jellyfish and seahorses!

Gardens

The numerous gardens provide beautiful scenic spots for photography in Stanley Park.

 

If you are visiting Vancouver or a resident of the city, Stanley Park is a wonderful spot for nature photography, seascapes, and landscapes, or as a location for portraits and people photography. It is a huge park and I have barely covered a tiny part of the potential photographic opportunities. I know one photographer who only photographs the wild life and plants in Stanley Park.

Feel free to post links to any photos that you have taken at Stanley Park!

Previous Posts

Part 1 Cypress Viewpoint

On May 26, 2011,  Vancouver CAPIC (The Canadian Association of Professional Image Creators) sponsored a presentation by Heather Morton on taking risks to adapt to the changing and competitive photography market. Heather also included video clips from Selina Maitreya, Heather Elder and Miki Johnson, further expanding on the theme of risk taking.

The presentation was followed by a panel Q&A with Eric Arnold of Dare Vancouver and Nora Ahern of Village and Co., both from advertising agencies in Vancouver.

As an emerging photographer, I was very interested in Heather's talk! After 3 years of study, I recently completed the courses for the Photography Certificate at Langara College, and I'm now working on developing my style and vision. I've been shooting and getting as much experience as possible, developing my portfolio and embracing social media by blogging and using Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr and Flickr.  Most of the Q&A panel discussion was on the use of social media, which is becoming a key part of photographers' marketing efforts.

The Nine Areas of Risk

1. Be a visionary

Heather started with a quote from photographer Chase Jarvis: "Take the pictures that no one else can take." The first step in successful marketing is to have a unique vision. A couple good examples of visionary photographers are Andrew B. Meyers and Chris Buck. According to Selina Maitreya in a video clip, the photography market is increasingly becoming divided into low-end and high-end markets, with the high-end being defined by photographers with a singular vision.

What does "vision" encompass and how does a photographer develop their vision? Heather's advice is to tell the story of you as a photographer. Vision needs time to develop. Take the risk of following your vision rather than following the latest trends.

2. Always be promoting

E-mail blasts and print promos are hard to get through these days. The volumes are too high for busy creatives to spend time on, and company spam filters stop a lot of e-mail. Printed portfolios are rarely called in anymore.  So what can a photographer do? Some are taking risks with promos that are highly targeted and creative. A great promo will get attention and may result in a tweet, blog post or shout out. Effective use of social media is an important part of the strategy. Promos should reinforce your vision about who you are as a photographer. Heather Elder said in a video clip that blogging and telling the story are very effective promotional tools. Also, face-to-face meetings with potential clients are still highly effective.

Miki Johnson explained via video clip the importance of a blog to give a personal face to your work.

3. Expand your horizons

Diversify yourself beyond your traditional offerings. Travel to new locations and open up to new opportunities such as social media and video. As Heather Elder said, photographers should see themselves as directors, content providers, application designers, and visual image makers. Some photographers are marketing to other photographers, for example David Hobby (Strobist) and David duChemin (Pixelated Image), who teach seminars, sell books and have popular blogs in addition to selling their photography.

4. Experiment & get smarter

Try new things, such as iPhoneography and video. Keep learning. Try different genres of photography. Experiment and practice until you have it down.

5. Get in over your head

Push yourself and don't be afraid to go in new directions. Trust yourself and get out of your comfort zone. It helps if you can share the risk with the client! Selina Maitreya's advice was not to work from fear. Stop chasing trends.

6. Reconsider money

Sometimes you may have a great creative opportunity that is worth doing for awards and recognition, not just the fee. Look at your quotes and see where you can trim excess to help meet the client's budget.

7. D.I.Y.

If the job comes in, say yes and figure it out! Scout locations yourself, test out everything and get your hands on all aspects of the shoot.

8. Collaborate

Pool your resources and expertise with other photographers, videographers, animators and web developers. Collaborate with clients. Take a risk to be open and share your ideas, suggest treatments in your quotes. Overdeliver.

9. Shoot every day

Stay passionate about photography by shooting every day. Interact and engage the world with your camera. Be curious.

Q&A and Panel Discussion

The major theme of the Q&A session was about the increasing importance of social media. It takes a significant amount of time and the results may come slowly, but it is necessary to use the various social media sites as they are channels to promote your work and vision. Here is a summary of the Q&A session.

Related Links

Here's the liveblogged event by CAPIC Vancouver.

Daphne Chan Photography post about the event.

Recap and opinions by Kamil Bialous photography.

Series: Great Vancouver Photography Locations

 

Part 1. Cypress Viewpoint

 

As a Vancouver based photographer, I've had the opportunity to shoot at a variety of locations around the city and would like to share some of my favourites. In each post, I'll cover one location and include links to the previous post.

Vancouver is a great city for photography. I moved here five years ago, and it inspired me to get more serious about it. I bought my first DSLR because I didn't want to waste my opportunities with a point & shoot camera! The city is surrounded by a beautiful natural ocean and mountain environment. Its northern latitude gives the city exceptional light with golden hours lasting much longer than one hour, and the proximity to the ocean provides a beautiful atmosphere. The biggest downside with Vancouver is its famous rain, which can settle in for a week or two at a time, especially in the winter! Ironically, that made me get more where can i buy clomid involved in studio photography where the unpredictability of the weather was not a problem! But when the weather and light are great, there's nothing I'd rather be doing than shooting outdoors at one of Vancouver's beautiful locations.

For those unfamiliar with Vancouver, the city's locations include:

• Beaches
• Mountains
• Coastal Rainforests
• Urban architecture
• Industrial areas
• City skyline
• Reflections over water
• Parks & gardens
• Marine locations
• Bridges

Please feel free to share your favourite Vancouver photography locations in the comment section.

Cypress Viewpoint

This is a great place to for breathtaking shots of the city. You can see downtown, the Lion's Gate Bridge, Burrard Inlet and a huge vista of the surrounding areas of Vancouver. Mount Baker, in Washington State is also very prominent on a clear day. If you get there an hour before sunrise, you will have both the city lights and a beautiful sunrise. It is easily accessible with a parking area next to the viewpoint.

Here's some information on getting to the Cypress Viewpoint.

I was inspired by the ballet dancer photograph (see below) by Chase Jarvis and decided to try a similar lighting style for a photoshoot that I did last week. I was shooting body painting work by makeup artist Meghan Thomas for actor, model and dancer Genevieve Clements. The theme was Medusa, the gorgon of Greek mythology with venomous snakes for hair and the power to turn to stone anyone who looked at her face.

I wanted a dark, shadowy look for the Medusa theme, but also wanted to make sure that the body painting was visible. To achieve this, I used a black https://www.bullens.com/buy-antibiotics-online/ seamless paper background and positioned two softboxes behind the model, one on each side. This is similar to the set up for the Chase Jarvis ballet dancer shot. I then added two gridded strobes in front to use as spotlights for highlighting the makeup and body painting. I also used two large black foamcore panels to block the light from the softboxes to prevent lens flare (see the lighting diagram below).

Post-processing was done with Lightroom 3.4 and Photoshop CS5. I increased the contrast and did some light retouching, but kept the colours to highlight the body painting.

Let me know what you think. Do you have some lighting techniques that you use to give a shadowy look?

Lighting diagram courtesy of Kevin Kertz.

We’re in the middle of the NHL playoffs and I’m rooting for the Vancouver Canucks. They are the best team in the league this year and have never yet won the Stanley Cup in the team’s 40 year history. They have had a tougher time in the playoffs, but are now one game away from winning the second round against the Nashville Predators, and moving to the next round with either the Detroit Red Wings or the San Jose Sharks.

Ice hockey is the most popular sport in Canada, and it's great to be living in Vancouver with all the play-off excitement. In celebration of the Stanley Cup playoffs, here are my favourite hockey photos. I was going to pick 10 but couldn't decide which one to eliminate, so this list goes to 11!

11. Eddie Shack ("The Entertainer") of the Buffalo Sabres jumping on the back of Gerry Ehman in 1971. Eddie Shack was famous for his antics on the ice and I think this photo captures it perfectly!

 

10. Ken Dryden was an outstanding goaltender with the Montreal Canadiens in the 1970's, when Montreal won 6 Stanley Cups. During breaks in the play, Dryden would often lean on his stick and rest as shown in this iconic photo.

 

9. A toothless Bobby Clark after the Philadelphia Flyers won the Stanley Cup against the New York Islanders in 1975. The Flyers were nicknamed "The Broad Street Bullies" for their aggressive style and Bobby Clark looked like a true fighting hockey player in this shot!

 

8. The Miracle on Ice: The underdog USA team beat the heavily favoured Soviet Union and went on to win the gold medal in the 1980 Lake Placid Olympic Winter Games. I love the celebrations after the win!

 

7. Maurice "Rocket" Richard was one of the greatest hockey players in the NHL, and he dominated the game with the Montreal Canadiens in 1942-1960. In 1955, he was suspended for fighting a linesman, which resulted in riots in Montreal.

 

6. This is a pretty amazing photo. It shows Gordie Howe (Mr. Hockey) with Wayne Gretzky, who at age 9 was already https://bea-skincare.com/wp/buy-accutane-online/ being noticed as a future hockey star. Both Howe and Gretzky broke numerous records during their careers and were considered the greatest players of their times.

 

5. Sidney Crosby Scores after scoring the goal in overtime to win the gold medal in the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Winter Games. It was a very exciting game and after he scored, Crosby threw his gloves and stick in the air. This is a great shot of that moment!

 

4. Wayne Gretzky, "The Great One" set many hockey records and dominated the game during the 1980's when he played for the The Edmonton Oilers. They won 5 Stanley Cups  in 6 years (1983-4 to 1989-90). Here's a photo of Wayne Gretzky from 1987 after defeating the Philadelphia Flyers.

 

3. Russia is a another great hockey country with strong teams and players. However, during the cold war, Russian players could not play in the NHL. In 1972 Canada and the Soviet Union competed in the Summit Series. This photo was taken just after the series-winning goal by Canada's Paul Henderson - one of the great moments in Canadian hockey.

 

2 .Bobby Orr after scoring the goal that won the Stanley Cup for the Boston Bruins in 1970. Bobby Orr was one of the best hockey players in history and I love this shot taken immediately after he scored the winning goal against the St. Louis Blues in 1970.

 

 

1. Bill Barilko scored the winning goal for the Toronto Maple Leafs in 1951 in overtime against the Montreal Canadiens. The photo show the Barilko diving through the air as the puck just entered the net.  Sadly, he disappeared in a boating trip that summer. His body was eventually found in 1962 when the Leafs won the Stanley Cup again.

 

The story of Bill Barilko is told in the song 50 Mission Cap by The Tragically Hip:

 

I'm looking forward to some more great moments in the upcoming 2011 Stanley Cup play-offs!

What are your favourite hockey photos? Post your links in the comments section below.

Related links

Greatest photos in hockey history

I love checking out antique shows, flea markets and garage sales, looking for old cameras and retro photography memorabilia. They are also great places to find props and costumes for photoshoots. The Kerrisdale Antiques Fair was held last weekend, so I took a look and found some interesting vintage photography collectibles for sale.

Most antique shows have some Kodak Brownie cameras. They were made in large numbers, so they are not very rare, but I love the retro styling. I found a Kodak Brownie Bullett II from the early 1960's. Unfortunately, the film (127 format) is no longer manufactured by Kodak, although some other companies have started producing it.

Another cool find was a box of mint condition darkroom supplies. There was photo paper, trays, chemicals, a developing https://www.rossitchpediatricdentistry.com/buy-clomid-online/ tank  and a brand new timer - all still in the boxes and never used. I was tempted to buy it, but I really don't have room for a darkroom right now!

One vendor had quite a selection of daguerreotypes. These would be pretty old - dating from the mid to late 1800's most likely. They were quite small, but each one was framed and covered with glass and had remained in excellent condition.

My favourite find though was a 1940's photo of a sailor with his wife or girlfriend, standing in front of an old car - looks like a Model T. He's smoking with his hat pushed back - maybe he just returned from the war. I love this photo so I got it for my collection!

More Links:

Here's a great collection of vintage fashion & style photos on Thriftaholic.

Awesome camera collection on strangepulse.com

 

9K8538VGNDNP

Inspired by the video tutorial on capturing pouring water on LearnMyShot.com, I decided to try it out for myself. I used the same basic setup described in the video. The images were very interesting - I was able to freeze the motion of the pouring water to get views of the incredible complexity that happens so quickly that you cannot see it in real time.

The photos show the complexity of turbulence, which occurs in many different situations involving fluid flow. It's amazing that so much https://www.ncahcsp.org/buy-valium-online/ detail and beauty can be found in such a simple thing as pouring some water in a glass.

In physics, chaos theory is used to understand turbulence. Chaos theory is useful to understand complex phenomena that are especially sensitive to small differences in initial conditions. For example, each time that I poured the water was different, resulting in totally different patterns in the water. Besides turbulence in water, chaos theory is used for mathematically modeling other complex phenomena such as weather, the stock market, and heart arrhythmia.

Check out some more images of liquid pour and splash photography at LearnMyShot.com.

Some references:

The Essence Of Chaos
Chaos

I dream of languages anew
Grammars undiscovered
A word for a half glance in a dream in the desert
While thinking we met in another lifetime
With fog descending in silence

Model: Chloe G.

Beautiful Chinese opera inspired makeup: Nikki Simpson

Hair Styling: Nikki Simpson

Photography by Vancouver photographer Lloyd K. Barnes

I Dream of Languages Anew written by Lloyd K. Barnes

Music: dream mechanics – blow and blow

Here is a gallery with more photos from the photoshoot

What is language?

According to Dictionary.com:

Language [lang-gwij]

Languages can be chemical - pheromones or the genetic code of DNA. In the short story "The God's Script" in Labyrinths: Selected Stories & Other Writings, by Jorge Luis Borges, an Aztec priest searched for a divine message in the spots of a jaguar.

I'm intrigued by the idea that one language could express ideas that cannot be expressed in another. There is a visual language used in photography that communicates ideas and emotions that cannot be expressed by words. Is is possible that anything can represent anything else if we know how to translate or decode the message?